Reviewer:
Pithecanthropus
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favoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
January 15, 2009 (edited)
Subject:
It's still there all right.
Olvera Street is certainly still there, although it always was and is a tourist trap. La Golondrina, BTW is well worth the trouble of going there, but
...
by local standards, its history of continuous operation back to 1930 makes it more historic than Olvera Street itself. Olvera's historicity is almost entirely fabricated, and most of the structures have little to do with Mexicans or with the founding of L.A. Until it was made over under the direction of socialite Christine Sterling in 1930, it was just a grimy alley. In 1920, Chaplin shot several scenes of "The Kid" there, it being well suited to the aura of urban poverty he wished to project. Sonoratown was an adjacent Latino neighborhood which still had a number of historic adobe houses as the narrator described. This fact may have lent a facet of greater authenticity at the time. Now however, Sonoratown is long gone, the victim of L.A.'s peculiar brand of urban renewal, which usually involves replacing low-income housing with, not much at all--that is empty plazas and pointless parks where nobody goes anyway. ETA: La Golondrina has long since graduated from iced tea to margaritas. And they are margaritas full of strength and character that will make you sit up and take notice, as they are the best you will ever have this side of beach shack cantina on some secluded Mexican beach.
Reviewer:
stinky wizzleteats
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favoritefavoritefavorite -
September 6, 2005 (edited)
Subject:
good
good
Reviewer:
Spuzz
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favoritefavoritefavorite -
June 27, 2005 Subject:
Nazi Mexicans??
An interesting tour around Olvera street in Los Angeles... Not too sure if it's still there or not. If it is, let's hope they don't have the stereotypes
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they have display in this film. The narrator is awfully strange making jokes somewhat at the expense of the Mexicans. Mind you, there is some lovely photography of the tourists down this street, and the music, while sometimes repetitious, is nice. This is sort of like a Mexican tourist trap, except you're outside of Mexico it looks like. As the reviewer below me has said, not too sure why one of the houses has a nazi symbol on it.
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